Dropping the word "gay" from lyrics - which showtunes would change

[BroadwayLuv]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 4:44pm

So which showtunes would have to be changed if this becomes a trend?

"I Remember It Well" from Gigi
"A Wonderful Guy" from South Pacific
are a couple that come to mind right away, but I know there are lots more.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100902/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_song_controversy



SYDNEY – An Australian school principal has asked students to stop using the word "gay" when singing a classic children's song, but said Thursday no offense was intended — he was simply trying to keep the kids from laughing.

Principal Garry Martin of Le Page Primary School in Melbourne said he instructed students to substitute the line "Fun your life must be" for the original "Gay your life must be" when singing "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree." The song about a native Australian bird is a favorite around campfires from New Zealand to Canada.

Martin said he was playing a recording of the song for the students about a month ago when the line "gay your life must be" produced a flurry of giggles throughout the classroom. Some of the students use the word "gay" as a schoolyard taunt, he said, but don't understand its true meaning. And so, to calm them down, he told them to swap in the word "fun" for "gay."

"It wasn't misplaced political correctness, it wasn't homophobia, there was nothing really calculated in doing it," he told The Associated Press. "I could've stopped the whole class and gone into a very caring, supportive explanation of gay being quite a reasonable choice in lifestyle that some people make, but I was only talking with 7- and 8-year-olds and I think that sort of thing is better explained more fully with parents."

His decision erupted into a controversy, he said, after one of the students told his parents about Martin's change to the song. Word then spread from the parents to friends to the local newspaper, which ran a story — and Martin found himself being bombarded with angry e-mails.

"Some think I'm the devil incarnate," he said.

Crusader Hillis, CEO of the gay and lesbian advocacy group The Also Foundation, didn't go that far — but he did call the lyrical swap an overreaction.

"It sends a signal to people that just because a word has two meanings, that one of those meanings is unacceptable and that's really putting us backwards," Hillis said. "Even if it's done for good intentions because 'gay' is being used in schoolyards as a slur, I think they need to use the word as a conversation rather than banning it."

Martin said his decision was a mistake made with the best of intentions, and he plans to speak to the students about how different words hold different meanings across generations.

He also plans to ask students to sing the original version of the song.

But, he added, "We might not sing it that often now."

[newintown]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 4:53pm

"I Feel Pretty," "You Could Drive A Person Crazy," (fag) and the entire show The Gay Life.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 5:01pm

Some versions of "You Could Drive A Person Crazy" have already replaced "fag" with "drag".

[D2]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 5:14pm

"Keep It Gay," obviously, from both THE PRODUCERS and ME AND JULIET.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 5:18pm

"If You Were Gay" - Avenue Q

[tazber]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 5:22pm

Candide - Glitter And Be Gay

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 6:02pm

"I Feel Pretty,"

They would only have to have Marni Nixon re-dub the line for the movie, since on stage Maria is not "gay," she's "witty and bright."

[sparrman]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 6:14pm

The already controversial "Rape Song" from The Fantasticks.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 6:35pm

I think Theater goers might be able to handle the word "gay" more maturely than elementary students. No?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 7:04pm

"The Lusty Month of May" from Camelot.

Personally, I don't find the change homophobic, and I agree that the word usage in some older songs can be extremely distracting. Times have changed and the word is simply almost never used today to mean happy. In musical theatre it is especially distracting, and can pull you right out of the story, when the word elicits the same response from a room full of adults as it did in this situation with a room full of seven and eight year olds.

[Dre2387]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 7:25pm

'There Right There' from Legally Blonde

[winston89]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 7:45pm

I think that this is utterly ridiculous. Yes, we are all well aware that the word "gay" nowadays has a negative meaning associated with it. However, I don't believe that it would pull someone out of the moment of the show to just hear that word. Most people who have some sense of an education or some sense of the english language understand that the word has, in the past, had a different meaning. And, that meaning was happy rather than homosexual.

I agree with Joekv99 that most theatre goers who are seeing revivals are able to understand the difference between the word being used then and now.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 9:23pm

He better not try to get his paws on "Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer?" or he'll have to answer to PalJoey.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 10:09pm

Isn't it rich?
Wasn't it just born that way?

[Wishing Only Wounds]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 10:25pm

Have people forgotten that gay actually means happy?

[sparrman]

Posted: 9/20/10 at 10:31pm

In "Lumbered" from "Stop the World", Littlechap sings "Wish I had a quid for every fag I've smoked".

[singtopher]

Posted: 9/21/10 at 2:48am

^ Tell me about it.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 9/21/10 at 10:34am

Yes, we are all well aware that the word "gay" nowadays has a negative meaning associated with it.

Um, I'm not. It has a different, more common definition, but if you think "gay" is negative, go to a therapist.

Everyone suggesting songs like "Keep It Gay" and "If You Were Gay" seems to have entirely missed the point of this thread.

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/21/10 at 11:14am

Gay Soper will never work again!

[Timmerbo]

Posted: 9/21/10 at 2:22pm

Younger than springtime are you. Funner than laughter are you.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 9/21/10 at 2:28pm

"Glitter And Be Lightheartedly Enthusiastic" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/21/10 at 3:13pm

However, I don't believe that it would pull someone out of the moment of the show to just hear that word.

It's not the word that's distracting. It's the childish reaction to the word.

[Edna Turnblad]

Posted: 9/21/10 at 6:36pm

Didn't the most recent Company revival replace "fag" and "bag" with "gay" and "away?"
I could understand a person if he said to go away.
I could understand a person if he actually was gay.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/21/10 at 10:45pm

Yes, but that was due to the constant speculation that Bobby is a closeted homosexual. In order to write that possibility more firmly out of the show, Sondheim removed the lyric questioning Bobby's sexuality, and Furth included an additional rewritten scene where Bobby is shown to be very slightly (and awkwardly) homophobic.